mandymoochops

To cut a long story short, we had someone in to wire the basement (he did an awesome job despite what I am about to say).

In basement bedroom 1 (directly below our bedroom) there was a wire, the elctrician asked if when we switched anything on upstairs - did anything switch on downstairs too (there was already basic wiring down there).

We said no, (although tbh wouldn't have known as we would have been upstairs!) so he chopped it.

After he went home we went to turn on our bedroom light and that, coupled with 3 power sockets didn't work.

Ahhhh so thats what the rogue wire was!!!! No hassels we think - hubby goes down and fiddles with this wire connecting it up to some or other circuit ( I am not savvy where electrics are concerned - and neither unfortunately - is he)

Now there is power to all of the bits that didn't work in the bedroom but testing it with one of those clever pens that make a noise, its showing that the two black and two white wires are now all live. And you still can't switch it on or plug stuff in.

Is this a simple fix (ie aaaah yes just change white and black wires over blah blah blah) or do we get another sparky in (which we have to anyway as there is no power to any of the downstairs bedrooms )

Can't get the original guy back as they moved back to England already and I don't fancy paying travel expenses

JonboyE

It might be a simple fix but it is very hard to tell. The problem is that when receptacles and fixtures are wired in series then the return wire for the first fixture becomes the hot wire for the next one. The electrician should wrap some black tape around the white return wire from the first fixture as it enters the second fixture so you can tell which is which. However, if the cable has been cut in the middle of a run it has probably not been labeled.

When the wiring gets more complicated, e.g. lights that are controlled by two or more switches, it can get really frustrating trying to work out which wire is doing what. If you can't trace all the wiring back to the breaker panel there are two options I know of:

1/ Trial and error - and hope that the circuit breakers can handle the wrong wires being connected.
2/ Get an electrician in.

Even though I consider myself as a reasonably competent DIYer I have been defeated by this. I was suitably humbled when an electrician worked out a wiring patter in ten minutes that I had failed to do in about five hours of experimentation.

I recommend 2/.

iaink

If they are wired in series somethings not right anyway and will need to be looked into...

MikeUK

It would appear that random wire chopping without checking is a acceptable skill set for somebody doing an awesome job?
Still from what I have seen in domestic wiring in Canada he probably got really good marks on his red seal exam!!

Certainly I would recommend getting a different sparky in to check all his work!! just to be sure.. you don't know how many other assumptions were made
It’s not uncommon to find that circuits do pass between levels in Houses in Canada, It’s just common sense to track a wire back to its source before doing anything, I can’t understand why he’d cut it without some kind of proper check??? ( Ok enough being negative this isn't aimed with you in mind, but more to act as a warning to make sure other doing the same sort of thing make sure they hire people that really knows their stuff, registered, licensed, qualified, well recomended, references etc)

It maybe that your other half has wired ( or did wire) your bedroom into the middle of a two way light circuit or something similar where both wires present can be considered live, he could also have wired it across two phases which would give 240v at the sockets both these options will give a hot readings at the socket one will pass no power, the other more than you want!!!

I'd get an electrician in who will check how many outlets are on particular circuit before he adds your bedroom to it. It’s simple and easy to just tack you onto any un-switched power outlet, but if you have a lot already on that circuit it may end up with many fuse replacements or trips to reset the breaker and in the worst cases fire.

caretaker

My electrician friend told me that an electrician is called Sparky in every country in the world.

mandymoochops

cheers loads for the advice all - it really is appreciated.

Only reason I asked on here is I wanted to earn my third star

(got one for mudding the basement, 2 for towing the steer into town and o/h says "if you can bloody well find out what the problem is with this f****g electrical then you can have 3 stars ((i'll also make him put out a little more than 'classroom' prizes but thats by the by ))

Winston Green

The short answer is stop using the clever pen thingy as they are very misleading if you are not electrically competent and buy a small meter from van tire etc. You will then get accurate results and will be better able to figure out where in the circuit to reconnect the rogue wire.